Empanadas on the rise in the Bay Area

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Empanadas on the rise in the Bay Area

1of5Paula Tejeda, owner of Chile Lindo, prepares an emapanada on Friday, March 2, 2012 in San Francisco, Calif.Photo: Russell Yip, The Chronicle

2of5Paula Tejeda, owner of Chile Lindo, prepares an emapanada on Friday, March 2, 2012 in San Francisco, Calif.Photo: Russell Yip, The Chronicle

3of5A beef empanada at Chile Lindo, and empanada shop in the Mission district, is seen on Friday, March 2, 2012 in San Francisco, Calif.Photo: Russell Yip, The Chronicle

4of5A sign in Chile Lindo, and empanada shop in the Mission district, is seen on Friday, March 2, 2012 in San Francisco, Calif.Photo: Russell Yip, The Chronicle

5of5Beef emapanadas at Chile Lindo, and empanada shop in the Mission district, are seen on Friday, March 2, 2012 in San Francisco, Calif.Photo: Russell Yip, The Chronicle

Paula Tejeda can tell you all about the empanada scene - or lack thereof - in San Francisco, circa 1995. That's when she and her then-husband, Dennis, took over Chile Lindo, a small Chilean restaurant in the heart of the Mission District.

"The previous owner said you're going to have to learn how to make pupusas because nobody will buy empanadas here," Tejeda recalled with a smile.

It might have taken more than a decade, but shops dedicated to South American-style empanadas are finally having their turn in the Mission and beyond.

In addition to the revamped Chile Lindo, there's Ferry Building and farmers' market staple El Porteño, and Venga Empanadas, which opened on Valencia Street in June.

To Tejeda, who spent years hawking empanadas at bars and clubs around the Mission, where she's affectionately known as the Empanada Lady or the Girl From Empanada, the competition is a welcome change.

"In this economy, the more we support each other, the more successful we'll be," she says in a tone that's as humble as the empanada itself.

At its core, an empanada is a baked or fried pocket of dough stuffed with savory fillings, very much like other cultures' pierogies, samosas or curry puffs.

In South America, the most common filling is ground beef, usually with hard-boiled eggs and whole olives, and perhaps spiced with cumin and paprika.

In the Bay Area, the new empanada joints offer versions from both Chile and Argentina, where empanadas are practically a national food. Chilean empanadas are larger and juicier than their Argentine counterparts, but which is better is a matter of perspective.

"There's a joke that if you're from Argentina, then Chilean empanadas are ignorant, soggy and big. And if you're from Chile, then Argentine empanadas are insignificant, dry and small," says Joseph Ahearne, founder of El Porteño.

Ahearne was one of Tejeda's earliest customers when she first bought Chile Lindo and started offering her empanadas filled with beef, onions and raisins.

But when a series of financial and legal issues caused Chile Lindo to go dark for part of the 2000s, Ahearne also saw a business opportunity. His family, originally from Buenos Aires, had owned a farm and Mexican American deli in St. Helena, so Ahearne had grown up around the food industry.

He started selling his Argentine empanadas at the Burlingame farmers' market in 2008, then slowly expanded to other markets around the Bay Area.

Today, El Porteño has a permanent kiosk in the Ferry Building along with wholesale and catering accounts that account for about 6,000 empanadas a week.

At about $4 each, El Porteño's empanadas feature a buttery, almost puff-pastry-like crust, and a generous filling - consider these the quarter-pounders of empanadas. Options include beef and chicken, as well as the top-selling corn and mushroom variation.

"It's pure comfort food," Ahearne says. "It's one of those things my mom would make on a Sunday or Saturday and we'd have them all throughout the week. And at the end of the week when we ran out, it was, 'Oh, I guess I'll have a sandwich.' "

Meanwhile, at Venga, the Argentine-style empanadas come with traditional heartier dough and leaner fillings. Owner Manuel Godino, who owned a pizza and empanada place in Buenos Aires before moving to the Bay Area, started Venga in 2008.

Like Ahearne and Tejeda, he built his business by renting kitchen space. At times, the threesome would overlap at various facilities.

To them, empanadas are an avenue for keeping old traditions alive while pushing quality forward. Chile Lindo has upgraded to Niman Ranch beef and cage-free eggs. In Argentina, all cattle is grass-fed, so El Porteño uses grass-fed beef from Prather Ranch, chicken from Fulton Valley Farms, and farmers' market produce for much of its fillings.

"I've cooked all my life, and I see people focused on Latin food, on the taco, but here, not empanadas," Godino says.

Adds Tejeda: "Now, we have our (corner) of the Mission."

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Janny Hu is The San Francisco Chronicle’s assistant sports editor, directing coverage of the Warriors/NBA and Major League Baseball. She was The Chronicle’s Warriors beat reporter from 2004-09 and also spent four years with the Food & Wine team. She has covered everything from the Olympics, Super Bowl and World Series to the latest Bay Area food trends. Her first book, The Slanted Door: Modern Vietnamese Food, a collaboration with James Beard Award-winning chef Charles Phan, was published in 2014.